Grants:Project/MSIG/Stronger CEE Hub

Stronger CEE Hub project is a continuation of the ongoing project Building a CEE Hub which has been implemented since June 2022. The same as the first project, this project focuses on the Movement strategy recommendation Ensuring Equity in Decision-Making and more precisely it focuses on MS initiative nr. 26 which is about Regional & thematic hubs.

CEE Hub is a regional Hub, and its focus is Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The CEE Hub was initiated to empower and to provide support structures that enable closer cooperation, capacity building and the transfer of knowledge between communities and individuals who work in the CEE region. CEE Hub is a sort of a back-office of the CEE, offering support in 3 fields:

administrative,
programmatic, and
related to communications.

Project Background[edit]

When do you intend to begin this project and when will it be completed?: Building a CEE Hub project ends on December 31^st 2023 therefore, in order to secure continuity our new project would start on January 1^st 2024. Stronger CEE Hub project would last for 12 months i.e. till 31^st December 2024.

Where will your project activities be happening?: Implementation of the project is related to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as CEE Hub is a regional Hub. This means that the vast majority of our efforts and activities are focused on the CEE. However, we will also continue to collaborate with other organizations and initiatives working outside of the CEE e.g. Wikimedia Europe, initiative around North American Hub, Wikimedia Sweden, Wikimedia Indonesia etc., and with the WMF because this is essential for the transfer of best practices in the movement and for accomplishing better results in the CEE region. It is also important to mention that we have a special relationship with Central Asian communities because they are the CEE neighbours which need support too. These communities participated in the CEE meeting the last two years and several young Central Asian Wikimedians (e.g. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) also joined our newly initiated CEE Youth Group. Although we cannot focus on them (as they are outside of our region and we are a regional hub), we want to include them in activities they can benefit from.

Are you collaborating with other communities or affiliates on this project? Please provide details of how partners intend to work together to achieve the project goal.: The CEE Hub exists because of the CEE region and it is here to support affiliates, communities and individuals who work on Wikimedia projects in the region. For an overview of affiliates and communities please check this meta page.

During the first year of the project we established regular communication with chapters, user groups and communities and we intend to continue putting efforts into establishing relations based on mutual trust. With this trust we can offer and provide services and support to those in the CEE region who need it. We established several communication channels, and we will continue using those:

one on one communication with communities via emails;
organising mostly online meetings (sometimes in person);
communication via MS Forum;
Facebook (CEE group);
Telegram groups (CEE group, CEE Hub group, CEEM group, CEE Spring group and CEE Youth group); and
providing information useful for the CEE region via the CEE Newsletter.

The CEE Hub cannot implement its activities without cooperation with CEE affiliates/communities, but it is the CEE affiliates and communities that benefit from cooperation with the hub as they are the ones that get support. The CEE Hub cannot exist without support and collaboration with the CEE communities thus its existence is based on the ability to establish and maintain highly productive relations and cooperation in the region. The CEE Hub is in regular communication with more than 30 affiliates and communities that work in the CEE region and we are able to support those communities that are willing and have the capacity to accept assistance and help. Several good examples of what can be accomplished with hub support are changes that we were able to stir in some CEE communities: thanks to our learning sessions and grant-application support, Wikimedia Community User Group Albania was supported in the process of writing and applying for the Rapid Fund grant (which was recently approved by the WMF), we were able to support Wikidata training for the same UG by connecting them with a right person and by enabling their travel to Albania to hold the workshop, we were able to support the community of Cyprus during their application to AffCom to become a User Group and we were also able to support their first Rapid Fund application (still in the evaluation process). These are just a few examples of the results of our work.

Remark: due to the war in Ukraine and WMF sanctions on Russia, Russian communities and affiliates (with exception of minority groups based in Russia) were not part of hub's activities up to now and we do not plan to actively work with them during the follow up Hub project either. We communicate with several members of minority groups based in Russia (e.g. Bashkortostan, Tatarstan) but due to previously mentioned restrictions we are not able to provide the same level of support other communities receive. This also applies to Azerbaijan and Belarus.

What specific challenge will your project be aiming to solve? And what opportunities do you plan to take advantage of to solve the problem?: This is a continuation of the CEE Hub project that is currently being implemented, thus the main challenges are related to the process of shaping a stronger CEE Hub, a structure that can support the CEE region and especially areas where affiliates and communities are not yet strong and stable (or where only individuals are active).

Specific challenges that this project aims to solve are:

Finding new ways to support and reach out to the CEE communities that are currently very small and fragile: creating a supportive network and environment for every active member/organisational structure of the movement in the region;
Balancing with activities and topics: CEE Hub is supporting 30+ communities which have very different capacities and needs. No one should be left out but the CEE Hub has limited resources thus its work has to be effective;
Reaching agreement/consensus about Hub’s governance model; and
Long term inter-regional cooperation: CEE Hub wants to support CEE Youth group cooperation.

The CEE Hub is still a new and experimental form of a Wikimedia organisation. During the second year we would like to take advantage of: connections, initiatives, processes and relationships that were established during the first year of the project. Without interrupting the project, we would like to both continue with our ongoing activities as well as add some new activities to CEE Hub’s agenda.

Does this project aim to apply one of the examples shared in the call for grants and if so which one?: Partially. It is a step ahead of Planning Hubs example (a project that seeks to facilitate conversations and agreement in the community for a hub project that had been researched before and has a clearly-defined scope).

Additional questions

What were the major things learned during the implementation of "Building a CEE Hub" project?

During the past year we have learnt that having CEE Hub as a central contact point for the CEE region can really make a difference for those who need support that is otherwise not available. Having an established and functional hub in the context of the CEE region, led to diminishing administrative burden, enabling programmatic and learning support, and establishing closer regional connections and communication channels. By providing direct support to communities and individual Wikimedians, the CEE Hub positioned itself as a service centre of the CEE region. Services that were provided by the CEE Hub included supporting individuals and communities from the CEE region during project application preparation and submission of their rapid grants, organising on demand learning sessions (Wiki Loves Earth, MS Grants, AI session which we are currently preparing), enabling purchasing of swag, supporting development of the CEE Youth initiative and supporting individual Wikimedians whose work is not supported by their local affiliates (e.g. enabling them to join the CEE meeting by giving out scholarships to attend the event). We learnt how those who are underrepresented and less organised can profit from the existence of the hub the most, while involvement of the more organised affiliates is also very important as working together enables peer learning and the development of a feeling of belonging to something much wider and bigger than their own local contest.

Explain the strategic positioning of the hub within the region?

By working closely together with the communities, affiliates and individuals from the CEE, the CEE Hub is aspiring to accomplish a wide sense of ownership. This is essential for moving Hub forward as we believe that Hub belongs to the whole CEE and that it makes sense if it can serve CEE communities and individuals. Not everyone from the CEE can and has to be equally involved in all CEE Hub processes all the time, but CEE Hub is a sort of glue that connects the region, and it enables faster and better attuned support as we work from the region and for the region.

The strategic positioning of the CEE Hub revolves mostly around creating a formal support structure for the CEE region that is owned and used by every community within the region and potentially beyond that, even though not every community can and will be involved in the CEE Hub at any given time.

The main aim of this new infrastructure is to support the less organised communities in a capacity that they require or have time for, eventually creating a more equitable relationship between those affiliates founded between 2007 and 2010 and those who organised later, closing the organisational and capacity gap between them and delivering one of the main goals of the Wikimedia 2030 strategy.

Project Activities[edit]

What specific activities will be carried out during this project? Please describe the specific activities that will be carried out during this project.: The project will be carried out according to the following plan, divided into these work packages:

Continuation of administrative support of the CEE communities and individuals

1. Continuation of administrative support of the CEE communities and individuals: as described in the first Hub grant, the CEE Hub is here to support communities and individuals in order to decrease their administrative burden. We will continue providing support in these areas:

Collecting information about grant administration and discussing with WMF the issues;
Supporting individuals and communities in writing grant applications (WMF and/or other funds) by offering consultations and guiding them through the process of writing applications;
Supporting CEE communities in the implementation of their activities: helping with organising events, design of materials or design of work processes. This support is provided online but ideally, CEE Hub staff would make 2 visits to less developed communities and support them during the organisation/implementation of a local event/project.

Continuation of programmatic support of the CEE communities and individuals

2. Continuation of programmatic support of the CEE communities and individuals: as described in the first CEE Hub grant, the CEE Hub is here to support communities and enable their program related development. We will continue providing support in these areas:

Enabling and supporting participation of smaller communities in regional/global projects by informing them, helping them to organise and offering step by step guidance through the process. This year we will continue providing support that we initiated during Year 1, related to Wiki Loves Earth. In addition to this, we will provide support and training related to Wiki Loves Monuments. Both of these campaigns are widespread in the CEE region but supporting smaller communities is still needed as they lack resources to launch and manage these campaigns on their own. In addition to this, we plan to facilitate the process of brainstorming and implementing innovations to the CEE Spring Campaign which is, although widely spread and loved in the CEE, running out of steam and needs both a reevaluation and a systematic introduction of innovations. We also plan to focus on at least one campaign that was not part of the Year 1 grant: International Roma Day or Wiki Gap (gender gap initiatives). Based on the analysis of the preferred activities of the CEE communities we noticed that these two topics, although not widely spread currently, have potential, thus we want to see how much can be achieved in the region with systematic support provided by the CEE Hub;
Supporting the running of regional meetings, foremost continuing supporting the organisation of the annual CEE Meeting (CEEM). CEE Hub representatives were part of the CEEM organising team during the CEE Hub Year 1 too, with the goal to ensure a smooth running of the process and to provide support to the local organisers. Similar to what was done during Year 1, we plan to continue providing support related to: choosing high quality and relevant content, ensuring that processes for the selection of delegates are fair and transparent and that the whole organisational process is running smoothly. During Year 2 we also plan on supporting and guiding new candidates in preparation of the CEEM 2025 grant application;
One important part of programmatic support during Year 2 will be mapping and facilitation of the adoption of technical tools/innovations and features (volunteer tools and those developed by WMF). CEE Hub will create a tool catalogue with guidelines/instructions about implementation and we will provide recommended tools for e.g. widely spread CEE campaigns. As we want this catalogue to be easily accessible, our idea is to create a subpage of our existing main CEE Hub page on Meta, and thus people interested in tools can easily find the needed tools through our main page and toolbar;
- We plan to organise and facilitate sessions which will connect technical volunteers in the region as well as collect feedback from communities regarding new/experimental tools (on the current state, and on needs).
Support region-wide efforts on topics that are of interest to volunteers that might not or cannot tackle these topics locally for various reasons (e.g. EU advocacy, AI and youth initiative); and
Cooperation with other hubs in order to enable relevant information exchange with the CEE region but also to support others who are part of the Movement and who want to learn from our work and our results/mistakes.

Continuation of support related to communication in the CEE region

3. Continuation of support related to communication in the CEE region: as described in the first CEE Hub grant, the CEE Hub is here to support regional communication processes, enable information flow and maintain information channels. We will continue providing support in these areas:

Updating CEE communication channels as well as enabling easy access to information: we are managing CEE social networks, we are coordinating and curating publication of the CEE Newsletter and hub staff is organising monthly open office hours;
Enabling the information flow between wider global initiatives and interested people in the CEE communities;
Enabling continuous capacity development of volunteers, affiliates and communities by preparing training materials, organising learning sessions and, when needed, writing guidelines. During Year 2 the focus will be on organising and facilitation of onboarding and leadership training for volunteers, board members and staff within the CEE region. We also plan to organise CEE board members experience exchange sessions;
Facilitation of communication and conflict management when problems in a community arise; CEE Hub staff will receive training on the topic of UCoC and CEE Hub will be able to support other CEE communities in establishing additional (custom made) processes for their communities that build on the UCoC; and
CEE Hub will have a special role of representation of the CEE Hub at Wikimania 2024. Wikimania 2024 is more special than other international events or other-year Wikimanias as it will take place in our CEE region. It is the first Wikimania in the region in close to 15 years and it will be an important avenue for CEE community building. CEE Hub will lead the process of developing the CEE Hub Wikimania program: preparation of CEE Hub presentations / track / booth as well as optionally also designing a process for awarding 10 merit scholarships for community members from the CEE region.

Defining and further developing CEE Hub governance model and organisation format

4. Defining and further developing CEE Hub governance model and organisation format: based on the feedback gathered from communities and during the 2023 CEE meeting, we will continue working on creating a fair, inclusive and equitable CEE Hub governance and voting system. Further designing of the CEE Hub governance model goes hand in hand with consultations with the CEE communities (and active individuals) as we want to create the feeling of ownership of the CEE Hub. We plan to test the new model during 2024 i.e. we want to be able to get approval for the Year 3 Hub plan and select SC Hub members during the months prior to the CEEM and based on a defined and transparent voting/endorsement process (which was co-created by CEE communities).

Apart from this, research about incorporation of the CEE Hub will be done to better understand all pros and cons and in order to decide about the future organisational development of the CEE Hub. The CEE Hub will continue having its regular biweekly meetings where employees, CEE Hub Steering Committee (SC) and members of the wider CEE Hub group meet to discuss project updates and all relevant ongoing issues. We also plan to organise three in person/hybrid SC meetings: one during the first months of 2024, one hybrid meeting after the Wikimedia Summit 2024 in Berlin and the final one after the CEEM 2024, in autumn 2024.

Supporting the work and development of the CEE Youth group (optional)

5 Supporting the work and development of the CEE Youth group: during the first year of the grant, the CEE Hub initiated the creation of the CEE Youth group. The group currently consists of more than 17 CEE youth members who are younger than 26 and who want to work together, support each other, and learn from each other. The CEE Hub wants to guide and coordinate the work of the group, steer the group towards closer cooperation, facilitate monthly online meetings and exchange of information. We would also like to organise one in person meeting of the group i.e. of the most active 10 members. Our focus during the implementation of the Year 2 grant will be: well-being of all participants, creating youth safety guidelines which is closely connected to defining boundaries of participation/co-creation of group rules, practical participation on realisation of activities (co-ownerships), building connection (as a prevention of a toxic behaviour), defining group governance (decision making processes) and having fun. Defined goals for Year 2 is to attract new members from not yet represented CEE communities, to attract more female participants, to define long term goals/results and to achieve active participation at Wikimania as a group.

The methods we plan to use are: learning and analysing local experience of participants (comparing different CEE communities) and documenting what we do in order to be able to give community feedback on youth motivation and participation in the movement. Although the precise activity plan for the CEE Youth group will be defined in close cooperation with the youth group and after our in person meeting which will take place in the second half of November 2023 in Prague, this is the most likely list of possible activities which we will be implementing:
- Development of a mentorship program: participants of the group will become Young mentors for other young newcomers;
- Developing an educational project for participants with a goal to train young Wikimedians to become lecturers/ Wikimedians in residence;
- Enabling skills training/mentoring (among participants);
- Development of the project “Youth international CEE WikiCamp”;
- Cooperation with other Youth groups in the movement (Wikivibrance...); and
- Development of youth exchange programs for internships in the CEE region.

Development of the CEE Hub Micro Grants (MG) programme (optional)

6. Development of the CEE Hub Micro Grants (MG) programme: Based on our experience of working with smaller communities, especially those where affiliates do not exist, we would like to develop a microgrant programme which would enable communities to apply for microgrants. These microgrants will have a lower barrier than Rapid Funds provided by the WMF: a minimum 50 USD can be requested, and applications will not be done in Fluxx but in a less demanding manner. The first step in implementing this activity is drafting rules and procedures about CEE Hub’s MG programme i.e. defining how one can apply for this grant, how many times per year one can apply, defining reporting after receiving grant, defining budget limits per community depending on the purchasing power of the country within which the community works etc. After defining rules and procedures, we will write guidelines and instructions for the CEE Hub Micro Grants applicants and we will either launch a call for micro-project submissions or have MG as an open ongoing option (until this budget line is completely exhausted). All received requests (based on guidelines which will be created and distributed before the Call) will be evaluated. We will also support those who get microgrants throughout the implementation of micro-projects.

We will track and analyse all implemented MG projects and results that were reported.

This activity will be implemented in close cooperation with the WMF and CEE WM Affiliates funded by the WMF to avoid double financing and to make sure blacklisted people do not receive funds.

‘Microgrants are proposed as an even less demanding and less time-consuming mechanism (compared to rapid grants) to support micro projects and individuals who need a small budget. What we would like to accomplish is to provide fast feedback to grantees which is not the same as taking part in one of rapid grants rounds. As we are in direct communication with communities and we are informed about their work and plans, there is less need for lengthy explanations and our decision-making process about Microgrants (50-700 EUR) should be very quick – we are aiming for a process of 2-3 weeks from applying to receiving grants.’

Piloting community building process (optional)

7. Piloting community building process: This working package is based on the outcomes of the research that will be finished during the first year of the CEE Hub project implementation. The aim of the research is to analyse a few less active and organised communities and to suggest possible activities and steps that should be taken in order to change the current status i.e. to change the dynamics within that community. We will focus on one or two communities which were part of the research and we will implement the following activities:

Draft a job description for the person who will be recruited to work on community building;
Recruitment process;
On-boarding and integrating a new person into the team; and
New contractor/employee will be in charge of implementing what was described in the research (actions related to more focused community building).

The main goal of this specific activity is to test whether with external, evidence-based, planned and regular support of the CEE Hub employees, the results related to reviving inactive CEE communities can be achieved. We plan to document this CEE community building process to be able to write reports and guidelines about activities that worked and also document and describe those which did not bring expected results.

CEE Hub incubator programme (optional)

8. CEE Hub incubator programme: This is a budget item to use for opportunities that we have not foreseen (similar to the CEE Youth group in Year 1) like possible research needs, bigger inter-regional cooperation projects and working on topics that came out of the freelancer assignments from Y1.

Project management

9. Project management: Transferring project activities into Asana (PM tool). Monitoring if all planned project activities are developing according to the initial plan. Organising regular staff coordination meetings (on weekly basis) and biweekly coordination meetings with CEE Hub SC members and members of the wider CEE Hub group. Coordination of execution (logistics and financial management) with the fiscal sponsor. Making sure that budget is spent according to the plan and managing budget reallocation (if needed). Having monthly coordination meetings with the WMF staff. Organising three in person/hybrid SC meetings. Writing the final project report in which we will explain which activities took place, what are the concrete results, what were deviations from the grant proposal (if any) and what are the lessons learned. Depending on the results, outcomes and developments the decision about the follow-up grant will be made. If this decision is positive, a new grant proposal has to be prepared and written in cooperation and after holding consultations with the CEE communities.

Project timeline

For better understanding of our yearly plan, planned outcomes and our project timeline, please check this document:

sheet nr. 1 will give you a detailed overview of the project timeline; and
the sheet nr. 2 will show you planned outcomes.

Additionally, you can check this document for following Theory of Change (ToC) concept used for above mentioned project activities that we plan to do during 2024.

How do you intend to keep communities updated on the progress and outcomes of the project? Please add the names or usernames of these individuals responsible for updating the community

Updating communities about grant request:

We are in regular contact with communities and individuals from the CEE region thus affiliate representatives as well as all CEE community members were involved and participated in the process of creation of this grant. After we wrote the first draft of this grant proposal, during August 2023 we held two online meet-ups to present the Year 2 CEE Hub plan and to also collect feedback. During the CEE meeting which took place in Tbilisi in September 2023 we organised a workshop about CEE Hub Year 2 Plan with a goal to additionally explain planned activities and to collect valuable comments and ideas about the support that is expected and needed from the CEE Hub. Although we were able to collect some feedback during online sessions and meetings with CEE communities during July and August, it was the workshop that we organised in Tbilisi that proved to be a much more efficient method to receive both positive and negative feedback. The Tbilisi workshop was a resource of valuable comments and ideas which are now incorporated into this grant proposal.

Updating communities on the progress and outcomes of the project (if funded):
- Bi-weekly meetings of the CEE Hub Group (Steering Committee + participants from CEE communities who are interested in the project progress);
- Informing communities via the CEE Hub Meta page, Telegram group, mailing lists and social media about the start of new project;
- Regular updates about activities and project progress via social media (Facebook), via our Meta page, mailing lists and via the CEE Newsletter;
- Posting our activities in the joint CEE Calendar;
- Organising 1:1 meetings with communities to both inform and engage them in the project implementation and to learn more about their activities, issues and needs;
- Organising regular monthly open office hours (this practice was established during the first stage of CEE Hub project implementation);
- At Wikimania 2024 we will both present our work and gather input. We hope to use the opportunity of Wikimania 2024 taking place in the CEE region as this means higher participation and more involvement of the CEE communities at the event. We plan to have a substantial presentation of our work and progress to get feedback and hear back from a diverse audience;
- Before the CEEM 2024 we will test the newly chosen CEE Hub governance model to approve the CEE Hub Year 3 plan and to select CEE Hub SC members. During the CEEM 2024 which will take place in fall 2024, we will further discuss progress, year 3 plan and future steps with representatives of CEE communities; and
- The final project report and information about next steps will be shared on Meta.

Communication will be coordinated by Barbara Klen, CEE Hub Regional Coordinator, with the support of Toni Ristovski (CEE Hub Program Officer). Also CEE Hub SC members will actively take part in this process.

Who will be responsible for delivering on this project and what are their roles and responsibilities?: The project is implemented by CEE Hub staff and CEE Hub SC members in cooperation with the fiscal sponsor WM Poland.

Fiscal sponsor: the role of the fiscal sponsor is to provide legal and logistical support, as well as to take responsibility for the CEE Hub’s accounting. All contracts are signed by the fiscal sponsor. The fiscal sponsor purchases tickets and buys services/goods as instructed by and in close cooperation with the CEE Hub Project Manager.
CEE Hub Staff is responsible for the implementation and monitoring of all activities, communication with the WMF, communication and organising meetings with CEE communities, close monitoring of the budget, reporting to the WMF and documentation of work processes.
- Barbara Klen, CEE Hub Regional Coordinator
- Toni Ristovski, Program officer
- 3rd staff member, Community development officer (to be recruited)

CEE Hub’s SC: monitoring the work of the CEE Hub staff and steering the overall direction of development of the CEE Hub.

The current Steering Committee was presented and confirmed at the Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2023 in Tbilisi, Georgia. The aim for the new committee was to have more female participation and cover a wider area of the CEE region, compared to the first Steering Committee. The Steering Committee currently consists of the following ten members:

Anton Protsiuk (Wikimedia Ukraine)
- Portfolio: media skills, work processes, content campaigns, cross-regional collaboration, outreach
- Expertise: campaign organising (article and photo contests), external communications and promoting awareness of Wikipedia
Tisza Gergő (Hungary)
- Portfolio: liaison with WMF about tech information, Movement Strategy, Movement Strategy Forum
- Expertise: technology, strategy, organisation experience
Ivana Madžarević (Serbia)
- Expertise: Innovation, Balkans
Kiril Simeonovski (Shared Knowledge, North Macedonia)
- Portfolio: Wikimedia CEE Meeting, international projects, cross-regional collaboration, community building
- Expertise: research, ideating, documentation, reporting
Başak Tosun (Türkiye)
- Expertise: Eastern Europe, Turkic Languages
Klára Joklová (Wikimedia Czech Republic)
- Portfolio: HR, Wikimedia Europe and ED Group liaison (as long as the CEE Hub Regional Coordinator is not part of the ED Group)
- Expertise: project management, facilitation, strategy, organisation development, community work, PR, finance, conflict management, facilitation
Michał Buczyński (Wikimedia Poland)
- Portfolio: Fiscal sponsor liaison, financial management
Philip Kopetzky (Austria)
- Portfolio: Responsible for the CEE Hub Grant
- Expertise: Project management, organisational development, grant applications, governance and international WM relations
Toni Sant (Malta)
- Portfolio: inclusion, community building, skills and capacity development
- Expertise: education, capacity building (evolve small to functional grantee)
Wojciech Pędzich (Poland)
- Portfolio: AffCom liaison, link between WM Europe and CEE Hub, providing safe and moderate discussion, social network management, Newsletter
- Expertise: research, communication, conflict mediation

To support the Steering Committee and staff the CEE Hub has two advisors:

Delphine Ménard (Expertise: Onboarding, Grants, HR)
Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska (Expertise: Volunteer Support, CEE Research)

The advisors do not take part in voting. They can be part of all working groups, they advise and recommend solutions to Hub related issues/topics. They take part in regular biweekly meetings.

Additional information[edit]

If your activities include community discussions, what is your plan for ensuring that the conversations are productive? Provide a link to a Friendly Space Policy or UCoC that will be implemented to support these discussions.

The Wikimedia Foundation’s friendly space policy will be applied.
The WMF’s Universal Code of Conduct will be applied.
We plan to hire a facilitator with experience in supporting collaborative brainstorming and decision-making for the two in person SC meetings

Do your activities include the translation of materials, and if so, in what languages will the translation be done? Please include details of those responsible for making the translations.: Translation to/from the Russian language during some meetings would enable us to connect with more people from Eastern Europe.

Are there any other details you would like to share? Consider providing rationale, research or community discussion outputs, and any other similar information, that will give more context on your proposed project.: The best reference which can provide context is our previous project Building a CEE Hub.; This grant represents the continuation or the second stage of CEE Hub development.; For better overview of the timeline and project outcomes, please check this document

Budget[edit]

How you will use the funds you are requesting?

Budget can be found here.

We are proposing two budget options (each on one sheet):

A budget that contains all activities that were explained above i.e. continuation of all activities which we started during the first year of the CEE Hub project implementation together with newly proposed activities related to microgrants, youth group support, community building and the CEE Hub incubator projects (which were marked as optional in the text above).
A budget that contains all activities that were explained above i.e. continuation of all activities which we started during the first year of the CEE Hub project implementation without newly proposed activities (which were marked as optional in the text above).

Conversion from € to $ was done using the exchange rate at Oanda on 26 October 2023.

TOTAL AMOUNT REQUESTED USD:

Budget with all activities: $213,951.97
Budget with the minimum of activities: $132,630.24

(final budget depends on which optional activities are included in the project implementation).

Completing your application[edit]

Once you have completed the application, please do the following:

Change the application status from status=draft to status=proposed in the {{Probox}} template.
Contact strategy2030wikimedia.org to confirm your submission, as well as to request any support around your application.

Signatures[edit]

CEE Hub Steering Committee: Philip Kopetzky (talk) 19:01, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
CEE Hub Regional Coordinator: BKlen-CEEhub (talk) 18:03, 26 October 2023 (UTC)

Endorsements[edit]

An endorsement from community members (especially from outside your community) will be part of the considerations when reviewing your application. Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

Wikimedia Community User Group Albania, Irdiism --Irdiism (talk) We believe that CEE Hub is most needed in the region to empower and provide assistance to communities so we fully endorse their project application. We had an amazing experience collaborating with Barbara and Toni and we would love this to keep going. 09:41, 30 October 2023 (UTC)
I believe, as Wikimedian of Greece, and generally the Greek Usergroup, that CEE Hub is extremely important to increase collaboration between the various CEE communities and help the various projects solve crucial problems such as community lack. CEE Hub has been very useful so far for the communities. I have a great collaboration with Barbara and Toni, as well CEE Hub steering committee in the Youth Group and other projects, so I think that CEE Hub must continue. NikosLikomitros (talk) 14:36, 18 January 2024 (UTC)